in the North-West Punjab ; and in some seasons a good many
arc to be met with up to the 15th of April almost everywhere,
and individuals may at times be seen alike in the north and
south* of India, in May or even June. Of these late stayers,
a few may be birds hatched late in the previous year, that
would not breed that year, and that feeling no sexual impulse
to migrate linger in comfortable quarters, but the majority
I suspect are sickly or injured birds incapable of undertaking
the long journey.
On the whole my experience and inquiries lead me to
believe that there are far fewer lingerers of this species than
of the Pintail ; and that on the average, taking the country as
a whole and a series of seasons, the Common Snipe both
leaves slightly earlier and arrives somewhat later than the
Pintail.
Such at least is the conclusion I arrive at after prolonged
enquiries, continued throughout many years. It will be distinctly
understood that I am quite aware that individuals, and
even small parties of both species, may be, and have been, met
with almost everywhere, where the species is common, equally
early and equally late. What I mean is, that if the exact
dates of the arrival and departure of every Snipe visiting the
Empire for a scries of years were recorded, the average date
of the arrival and departure of the Fantails would prove, the
former fully three weeks laterj the latter a fortnight earlier than
that of the Pintails.
For the benefit of those disposed to aid in further elucidating
this question, it should be noticed that the nature of the season
greatly affects the question ; that Pintails seem less subject to the
influences of excessive or deficient rainfall; that a bumper rainy
season in the north, while it brings in the Fantails earlier there,
certainly delays their arrival in the south ; that such a season,
followed as it generally is by a prolonged cold weather, detains
all Snipe beyond their average dates ; that the early setting in
of the south-east monsoon takes them away earlier ; and that
the prevalence of southerly winds, towards the latter half of
the rains, in Upper India at any rate, delays their appearance,
*" I have shot them on dry, grassy plains, and also once in a young tope in front
of the Vellorc Railway Station in May and June, and at another time in a babool
(Acacia arabica) plantation in Palamcottuh in April and May ; but Uie birds were in all
these cases in very poor condition, and hardly able to fly. At the latter place I saw
them for the first lime sitting on ground, which had not sufficient grass to give
them cover."—A. Theobald.
"About the middle of March Snipe begin again to collect in whisps, and by
April 1st, warned by the first blasts of the hot winds, they are away to other climes.
I find a note in my game-book of a strange occurrence. On May 2nd, 1871,
when out tiger-shooting, and when the hot weather had regularly set in, I shot
seven Snipe, and flushed several more on the edge of a tank near a village named
Goorsora in the Lullutpore District. What had caused these birds to delay their
departure so late I cannot imagine. I remember that, when cooked, they appeared
to be thin, and wanting the flavour for which Snipe are so justly famed."—
y. H. Baldwin.
and generally, that just conclusions can only be arrived at in
this matter, after analysing a large body of facts collected all
over the country, in the light of the various seasonal conditions
under which they occurred.
The Common Snipe is eminently gregarious, and, like the
Pintail, it arrives and departs en masse. True that early and
late in the season, single birds or couples are often met with,
and that this is common enough even in the height of the
season, in localities furnishing little cover or scanty nutriment;
but where these arc abundant, and Snipe are in, you invariably
find several in the same locality. Not that when feeding, or
rising when disturbed, they mass in flocks like Ruffs and
Reeves or Sand-pipers. On the contrary, although, when wild,
they may rise in whisps and occasionally two, three, or four may
be flushed from the same spot, where all must have been feeding
together, as a rule they feed, no matter how numerous they
be, a few yards apart, and rise independently of each other.
You find them in Upper India, in every swamp or marsh on
the margins of ponds, lakes and rivers, wherever there is a
more or less muddy foreshore protected by low grass rush or
reed. Of all things they seem to love a kind of rush with a circular
stem {Scitpus carinatus, I think) which is common
about the edges of ponds and jhils in the North-West Provinces,
and which is a sure find for them. In the heat of the day,
where urker and similar crops run down to near the water's
edge, alongside some jhil, you will often find many Snipe in
these ; and when a good deal shot at, especially about mid-day
in bright hot weather, they will constantly drop in young wheat
and the like.
One peculiarity of the Snipe is correctly pointed out by
Mr. Reid. He says : " Although Snipe frequent wet places
they never, when resting, allow their breasts to be in contact
with water. Where the water is therefore at all general—
no matter how shallow it may be—it is hopeless to expect these
birds to lie close ; this is only possible where suitable resting
places are abundant."
But true as this is, you will constantly, at mid-day, find numbers
of Snipe resting on thin layers of water weed, half a mile
away from any firm dry land, floating in water several feet in
depth. In such situations, softly and silently punted from one
weed bed to another, in a stable fiat-bottomed boat, you may
enjoy perhaps the best Snipe-shooting in the world. Each
little patch contains two or three Snipe, which only rise when
the prow grates on the edges of the floating mass. The birds
when shot all drop in the water; any that are missed drop on a
neighbouring patch, and without the smallest exertion, without
soiling your boots even, you may thus shoot in some large
jhils, from n A.M. to 3 P.M., almost as rapidly as you could load
and fire in muzzle-loading days.